Racing opinion: Adam Houghton talks to Owen Burrows about 2022 and the year ahead

A couple of names stole the headlines when the 2022 Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings were released on Tuesday.

First and foremost, there was the unbeaten US champion Flightline, who stood head and shoulders above every other horse who raced on the Flat last year with an official rating of 140, a figure matched previously by only Frankel since the international classifications were introduced.

Next in the rankings was Baaeed, who was in turn well clear of the rest with a rating of 135, ensuring that he was recognised as the world’s highest-rated turf horse in 2022.

That rating also identified Baaeed as the best horse to have raced in Europe since the days of Frankel and the only sadness is that he scaled those heights after the death in March 2021 of the man who did so much over so many years in the hope of breeding a horse of Baaeed’s quality, namely Shadwell Stud founder Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.

The death of Sheikh Hamdan had a significant impact on lots of lives ahead of the 2022 Flat campaign, not least that of Owen Burrows, who had previously trained in a private capacity for Shadwell at their Kingwood House Stables in Lambourn, his string topping 100 horses at its peak.

Once the decision was made to downsize the operation, Burrows was always going to be amongst the hardest hit and so it proved. In 2022, Burrows had just 25 horses who ran at least once on the Flat in Britain and only nine of them sported the famous Shadwell silks, essentially the cream of the crop who were spared a trip to the sales.

Quality not quantity in remarkable campaign

That dip in numbers also necessitated a change of scenery for Burrows, who moved to a much smaller base nearby at Farncombe Down Stables, and the expectation was that 2022 would be a quieter year for the trainer and his team with a view to rebuilding for the future.

In many ways, it was. The name Owen Burrows was certainly a less common sight in racecards and he saddled only 67 runners on the Flat in Britain in 2022, down from a high of 182 in 2018. However, it was what those 67 runners did that really counted and, remarkably given everything that came before it, the latest season was in many ways the best of Burrows’ training career to date.

It was comfortably his best by total prize money won (£956,200) and so too by strike rate (31%) having saddled 21 winners from those 67 runners. That strike rate was on a par with champion trainer Charlie Appleby (152/488) and behind only fellow Lambourn resident Nicky Henderson (4/11, 36%) amongst the trainers who had 10 or more runners on the Flat in Britain in 2022.

Perhaps even more notable was the calibre of the horses in question. For context, Burrows saddled no fewer than four individual Group-race winners, all of whom appeared in the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings having earned an official rating of 115 or above.

For a trainer who ran only 13 horses aged three or above all year, to have four ranked amongst the best in the world – more than the likes of Andrew Balding, Roger Varian and Sir Michael Stoute, all of whom would have much bigger strings – was a particularly impressive feat and evidence of a yard punching well above its weight.

It’s an achievement of which Burrows is rightfully very proud, as well as being grateful to Shadwell for leaving him with a few leading lights to help keep the ball rolling at such a difficult time for the whole team.

“We came to the new yard with much-reduced numbers compared to what we had three or four years ago,” Burrows said when reflecting on the uphill climb he appeared to face at the start of 2022.

“I was very fortunate that Shadwell kept the best or what we thought were the best. Thankfully, none of them let me down really. There were one or two three-year-olds we kept who didn’t go the way we expected, but the older horses all hit their marks.

“It was by far my best season ever. Numerically, I’ve had more winners, but our strike rate was great and in total we had eight Group winners. It was an amazing year and full credit goes to all my team because it’s been a tough couple of years.”

Group One celebrations marred by injury sadness

One horse who was never in any danger of getting the axe from Shadwell was Minzaal, though he too endured his fair share of difficulties in a career which saw him develop into a high-class sprinter. He was forced to miss most of his three-year-old season due to injury, while another setback he suffered in winning the Sprint Cup last September ended up bringing his career to a premature end.

Still, for Burrows it was just a relief that Minzaal retired as a Group One winner having finally made the breakthrough at Haydock, justifying the belief he’d had in the son of Mehmas from the very start.

“Minzaal really deserved that,” Burrows explained. “He was a very high-class two-year-old to win the Gimcrack like he did. He ran well in the Middle Park, but then through no fault of his own he injured himself in the box which kept him off for the majority of his three-year-old season. Credit to him that he still managed to get Group One-placed right at the backend following an interrupted campaign.

“We were delighted that he got his day at Haydock last year and you don’t win too many Group One sprints by nearly four lengths. I don’t quite know what the score is with the track record. It was only a hand time, so I don’t whether he’ll get the credit for that.

“It was still a very impressive performance and it was just a shame that we weren’t able to take him to Ascot on Champions Day, but he proved to everybody what we’d been seeing since his two-year-old days.”

Minzaal has since joined the stallion division at Shadwell’s Derrinstown Stud in Ireland and Burrows is looking forward to training his progeny in the years to come. There is plenty else to keep the team at Farncombe Down occupied in the meantime, though, particularly with the other three stars of 2022 all set to return.

They include the six-year-old Hukum, a full brother to none other than Baaeed. A stable stalwart with seven wins to his name in Listed/Group company, Hukum became his trainer’s first top-level winner when landing the Coronation Cup at Epsom in June, but there was another sad postscript that day as he too suffered an injury which put his racing career in serious jeopardy.

“It did a bit,” Burrows confessed when asked whether that milestone was marred by news that Hukum had fractured his right-hind fetlock, ruling him out for the rest of the season at the very least.

“It was fortunate that it was in the school holidays, so I’d taken my wife and two kids and it was brilliant to have them there. I had a good group of friends there as well. We had a couple of drinks at the racecourse and we were all planning to have a proper celebration when we got home.

“Unfortunately, that didn’t happen as such, not that night anyway. We did celebrate a week or so later, but it did knock the edge off it.”

As for what 2023 might hold for Hukum, Burrows is seemingly in no rush to nominate a specific target for his return to action, though another campaign taking in the big Group One races at around a mile and a half could be on the agenda if everything goes as hoped in his preparation.

Burrows added: “He’s back with me and he’s just cantering away steadily at the moment. There are no immediate plans and we’ll take each week as it comes. He’ll tell us how he’s doing. All the obvious races are there and we saw what Pyledriver [runner-up in the Coronation Cup] did in the King George, so hopefully we can be competitive in that sort of race again this year.”

Alflaila and Anmaat ready for Group One assignments

Another horse Burrows is hoping might be capable of making an impact at the top level in 2023 is the four-year-old Alflaila, who ended last season with three straight wins in a Listed contest at Pontefract and a pair of Group Three races at York and Newmarket.

Those victories teed him up for a crack at the £600,000 Bahrain International Trophy in November but, in a recurring theme for Burrows amidst his slew of high-profile wins in 2022, disaster was lurking just around the corner.

“Alflaila made great strides last season and obviously stepping him up in trip was the making of him,” Burrows said. “It was a big win at York and then another good performance at Newmarket – Charlie [Appleby] had the second who has come out and franked the form.

“Again, it was unfortunate that he had an injury in Bahrain literally a few days before he was due to run. He’s not back with me yet, he’s still rehabbing back at Shadwell, but we’re looking forward to seeing him.

“I think he’s up to an official rating of 116 now and there could be a few more pounds of improvement in him. He’s another one who could be very progressive.”

Similar comments apply to the last member of the star quartet at the Burrows yard, namely Anmaat, who was unbeaten in three starts last season, first defying a BHA mark of 103 in the John Smith’s Cup before taking the transition into pattern company in his stride with victories in the Rose of Lancaster Stakes and Prix Dollar.

Already a Group Two winner, Anmaat will be forced to go up against the best around sooner rather than later and Burrows is hopeful that he can pick up where he left off last year with one eye on the big races at around a mile and a quarter.

Explaining how last season didn’t get off to the best of starts for Anmaat, Burrows said: “I had plans to run him in the Hunt Cup or something at Royal Ascot, but for whatever reason he was just very slow to come to hand.

“There was nothing majorly wrong, he was just a bit slow to come in his coat and it took us a while, but once we did get him there, he never stopped improving. He was obviously a good thing in the John Smith’s Cup wasn’t he?!

“He was very impressive in the Rose of Lancaster and Jim [Crowley, jockey] doesn’t get carried away too often, but he was very complimentary afterwards. And I thought it was a massive performance in France because Jim said he wasn’t enjoying the ground. He had to be tough because the French horse came and probably went a neck up on him, but he fought back to win it on the nod.

“It was a huge run and hopefully we can possibly start a bit earlier with him this year. All those races over a mile and a quarter would be there to look at.”

Numbers up and plenty of nice three-year-olds to follow

One challenge Burrows might face is trying to keep Alflaila and Anmaat apart once both horses are back to full fitness, but that’s certainly a nice problem to have compared to the position the trainer found himself in this time last year.

Even now, Burrows was seemingly pinching himself when reflecting on how well things have gone in the interim and the success he enjoyed in 2022 already appears to have rubbed off when it comes to attracting new owners to the yard.

“It was obviously a big year for me last year,” Burrows summed up. “We had just over 30 horses, whereas this year we’ll have just over 50. It’s very competitive and I’m sure every trainer out there would tell you they’d like to have a few more. But to be into the 50s is great and hopefully we can build on that success again this season.

“We’ve got a much bigger base of three-year-olds this year and that’s sort of your bread and butter. We still have those nice older horses from Shadwell and on paper we’ve got a nice bunch of two-year-olds as well, so there is a lot to look forward to.”

Last but not least, how about a couple of lesser-known names who Burrows is particularly looking forward to seeing on the racecourse in 2023?

“There are a couple of nice three-year-olds for Sheikh Ahmed,” he went on. “There is a Churchill colt called Tarjeeh and a Showcasing colt called Lajooje and they both won their novices at Newbury last year. I think they’re both nice horses to look forward to.

“There are one or two nice Shadwell fillies as well who had just one run at the backend, Mantoog and Rowayeh. They showed up nicely last year and it’s exciting because there are some nice horses to come out of the three-year-olds.”

More from Sporting Life

• Racecards
• Fast results
• Full results and free video replays
• Horse racing news
• Horse racing tips
• Horse racing features
• Download our free iOS and Android app
• Football and other sports tips
• Podcasts and video content

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.